Annotations on the Draft Proposal for the Animal Protection Act 2006

Experiment Ban on Primates and CITES

In accordance with the EU Assembly 86/609 EEC, Animal Friends believes that in the conception of law propositions about laws that protect animals the following decisions about animal testing should be included:

1) Article 4 and Article 7 of the EU Assembly 86/609 EEC says that every member country has to ban testing on wild animal that are found on the CITES' list of endangered animal species. We believe that this ban should be included in the law proposal considering the fact that this has not been done so far due to synchronization with the EU law.

2) Ban of use of primates for experiments (Article 23)

Explanation: Present researches on primates have shown that monkeys have the ability of solving complex problems, have complex ways of communications, and an exceptional ability of remembering past events and anticipating the future ones. They use intelligence primarily to shape and understand relations with others in their social groups, just like humans. Experiments on monkeys have shown that if they are deprived of the contact and support of their group and when they are isolated in small cages they are experiencing mental breakdowns and torture, just like humans. Monkeys are used primarily in experiments with toxins. Even though no law says that they have to be used here it is common to test new drugs and other substances on them. They are given toxic doses, most often by forced feedings, in order to discover the effect on their bodies even though their bodies react differently from human bodies. Primates are also used for neurological and other medical and psychological experiments. The scientists often infect the monkeys with contagious diseases that the monkeys would never get on their own as those are not typical for their species. The inevitable physiological differences mean that by performing experiments on monkeys we find out new facts about monkeys themselves, not humans. Therefore, it is not surprising that decades of experiments on primates in many venues have not resulted in finding the cure. Experiments on primates have no place in the modern civilized society. Even though, as far as we know, presently in Croatia such experiments on monkeys are not being performed, we believe that in the conception of the law we have to include that ban of executing experiments on primates as well as the import of primates and their young from the wild in order to perform those experiments for scientific researches.

Ban of dog racing

Total ban of dog racing (not only on hard surfaces)

Dogs that are being used for racing are treated as "racing machines." They are being "produced" in the amounts that require getting rid of the dogs who are a surplus, hurt, old, too slow, or not profitable. Thousands of dogs are being killed every year in order to keep the dog racing industry alive. Some dogs are killed in the name of selective breeding even before they step on the race track. Dogs that are selected to race are usually kept in cages and wear muzzles from when they are 14 to 17 months old. Many get infections with inside and outside parasites from wearing muzzles. Even though many types of dogs like greyhounds are very sensitive to temperature changes due to a lack of fatty tissue in their bodies and thin fur, they are forced to race in extreme conditions (temperatures from below zero to very high heat). A very small number of dogs manages to survive to their retirement age of 4 to 5 years. Wounds and diseases, broken legs, heat strokes, and heart attacks take a lot of lives. Others are victims of the "racing machinery." The best dogs run the fastest and are more prone to injuries. Others die while being transported from one racing place to another. The dog racing industry practices dog transports of up to 60 dogs per truck with two or three dogs per cage. In summer the back part of the truck reaches high temperatures that are lethal for the dogs who cannot sweat to cool their bodies. Most dogs that become slow and therefore non-profitable are immediately killed or sold to research laboratories.

In the United States, where the problem of dog racing is the most outstanding, dog racing on all surfaces are forbidden by law in 34 states.

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Animal Friends is a non-profit, non-governmental organization, founded in 2001 with the aim to promote animal protection and animal rights as well as veganism, as ethical, ecological and healthy lifestyle.
Animal Friends Croatia is a member organization of EVU,
Eurogroup for Animals, ECEAE, FFA, IAFC and OIPA.